The pro-life organization that has been on the forefront of exposing the details surrounding the botched 33-week abortion that killed a New York woman last week says the abortion practitioner responsible is linked to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Following a new probe started by local officials, the Maryland Attorney General has opened an investigation into the late-term abortion practitioner who killed a Morbelli. The Maryland Attorney General’s office is not specifically looking into Morbelli’s death but it is looking at illegal dumping by the abortion clinic that could result in fines or other form of punishment.

Operation Rescue obtained photographs of a secret party held by Sebelius in 2007 while serving as Governor of Kansas that honored late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller and his entire abortion clinic staff. Carhart and his wife, Mary Lou, were present at that party, which was held while they were under investigation by the State Attorney General’s office for suspected illegal late-term abortions, the group says.

Operation Rescue also has documentation that indicates Sebelius interfered in a medical board investigation into the death of another of Carhart’s third-trimester abortion patients, Christin Gilbert, on January 13, 2005.

An investigation was launched by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts based on a complaint filed by Operation Rescue. Gilbert’s death prompted the Kansas Legislature to pursue a law that year, which would have regulated abortion clinics in Kansas. Sebelius adamantly opposed any regulation or accountability for abortion clinics, having vetoed similar laws in previous years, the pro-life group said.

“After a Board investigation was opened, Sebelius wrote to her appointee, KSBHA Ex. Director Larry Buening (who was later forced to resign his position), asking for him to report to her on Gilbert’s death investigation and to give her an opinion about how the proposed new law would have affected her care,” the group told LifeNews. “The pro-abortion political climate created by Sebelius, along with her personal interjection into the investigation, led the Kansas Board of Healing Arts to prematurely and publicly “clear” Tiller and Carhart of any culpability in the death of Gilbert a full five months before the politically sanitized autopsy report was even completed. It is no coincidence that the Board’s opinions on the Gilbert death were released the same day that an important vote on the clinic regulations bill was scheduled in the Senate.”

OR said it helped convene a citizen-called grand jury to look into Gilbert’s death. During that investigation, Carhart dodged a subpoena for his testimony by staying out of Kansas while the grand jury was in progress. He never testified. The Grand Jury disbanded without handed down indictments.

“It is regrettable that political corruption in Kansas that was orchestrated and controlled by Sebelius thwarted efforts to hold Carhart accountable in the death of Christin Gilbert. If she had not interfered and an honest investigation had been allowed to proceed, Jennifer Morbelli might be alive today. In a very real sense, the blood of Mrs. Morbelli is on Kathleen Sebelius’ hands,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation.

Newman is concerned that Sebelius, with her added power as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the pro-abortion Obama Administration, will also interject herself into the ongoing investigations into the death of Jennifer Morbelli in order to protect her friend, Carhart.

“Our experience with Sebelius is that her number one priority is protecting and promoting abortions – even if it means the death women and their babies that our laws are supposed to protect,” said Newman. “We call on all authorities investigating the death of Jennifer Morbelli to conduct independent and honest investigations that are free from the influence of Sebelius and her pro-abortion cohorts in the Obama Administration.”

The Maryland Attorney General’s office notified the Maryland Coalition for Life and Operation Rescue that is has late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart and Germantown Reproductive Health Services under an active criminal investigation for illegal dumping, based on complaints made by both groups last year. This investigation is separate to ongoing investigations into Morbelli’s death, OR informed LifeNews today, that are currently underway by the State Medical Examiner, the Montgomery Police Department, and the state’s Office of Health Care Quality.

David Williams of the Maryland Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Unit contacted Janet Kotowski, a pro-life sidewalk counselor in Germantown, to notify her that an investigation was underway. Kotowski wrote a letter last November asking the agency to look into illegal dumping of biohazardous waste and private patient information at Germantown Reproductive Health Center in follow up to a complaint filed by Operation Rescue in July, 2012.

Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue also spoke with Williams yesterday and has agreed to turn over unedited video-taped evidence of the illegal dumping documented last year to aid in his investigation.

“This is a very serious criminal investigation,” Williams told Sullenger.

In July, 2012, Operation Rescue filed a formal complaint with the Environmental Crimes Unit and released edited video and photographic evidence that showed GRHS and Carhart engaged in the illegal dumping on a routine basis. Evidence included:

Sullenger continued, “The tragic death of Mrs. Morbelli from a botched 33-week abortion may be the catalyst that will finally bring Carhart to justice. It’s too bad that a woman had to die before authorities would sit up and take notice.”

Morbelli died as the result of fatal complications suffered during an abortion at 33 weeks at the hand of late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart. The abortion took place at the Germantown Reproductive Health Center in Germantown, Maryland. Her 33-week-old preborn daughter, Madison Leigh, died in the failed legal abortion as well.

Morbelli arrived at Germantown Reproductive Health Center on February 3 to start the abortion process. Local pro-life advocates protesting outside saw her every day until yesterday, and described her as appearing “pale and weak.”

By the morning of February 7, she began suffering chest pain and other discomforts, the group informed LifeNews. Her attempts to reach Carhart were unsuccessful. The woman was taken by her family from her hotel to a nearby hospital emergency room at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital at approximately 5:00 a.m. Efforts by hospital staff to contact Carhart or get informational assistance from the abortion clinic were unsuccessful and he did not return a handful of calls.

Morbelli, a full-time substitute teacher at the Church Street School in White Plains, New York, suffered massive internal bleeding into her abdominal cavity. She slipped into a Code Blue condition approximately six times before finally succumbing to her injuries at around 9:30 a.m.

Investigators in Maryland said that, while the probe into Jennifer Morbelli’s death is ongoing, there is currently no indication of criminal activity.

“I can confirm that, yes, there is a death investigation being coordinated by the Medical Examiner’s Office and the Montgomery Police Department has been notified,” said Lucille Baur, a spokeswoman for the police department.

Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the medical examiner, said the office was “investigating the cause and manner of death” of Morbelli, but would not provide further details.

“This is a routine death investigation,” he said. “Anytime somebody dies during a medical procedure it’s referred to this office. So it’s a routine matter. There is no timetable. Things happen when they happen.”